Hello everyone, my apologies for such a late appearance after the trip. Came back on 30th April and immediately got busy with university from the 1st of May.
To begin with, all the cautions and pointers given by the seniors here were accurate. April wasn't the best of time, would have been ideal to wait out till early June, but in our case it was the only vacations we had. But after all it's North Pakistan and it can never disappoint! It was extremely fun specially when you have your uni boys around. Weather was hot from pindi till chilas. First day we undertook a marathon 18hr journey from Pindi to Chilas. Road absolutely sucks from dasu till Chilas. Next day was Chilas-Skardu. Skardu had a pleasant weather with some rain. Visited Shangri La, Upper Kachura and Sok valley the first day. Upper Kachura was absolutely stunning at that time if the year, with snow covered mountains in the backdrop of a crystal clear lake. Sok Valley was a worthwhile trek, beautiful views all around but nothing specific to see there. 2nd day in skardu was Manthoka Waterfall (boys delayed the departure so we could only visit there) and went to Sadpara lake on sunset. We only wished we'd have the opportunity to see it during the day. We departed the next day, stopped at gilgit for car work and lunch, then went on to reach Hunza, near Eagle's nest. The place there Hunza Huts, sucked. Had a pretty bad experience there. Although hunza should have been the best part of trip but it wasn't since it rained heavily with lots of chilly winds and temperature feel was 1degree which doesn't sound good for karachiites. Hopar glacier was great (tho got ripped off 4000 for eating fries there). Altit fort is boring, heard baltit is much better but couldn't visit due to shortage of time. Left towards khunjerab pass on 2nd day, stopped at passu Cones, went on till within 10km of Khunjerab pass but the road was only open for cars and hadn't cleared enough for coaster. But witnessed the first snow of my life there and it was absolutely amazing. Next day went to Nalter, but since lakes were closed, could only see the zero point which was also very beautiful with some snow lying around but nothing special to see there EXCEPT the snow leopard in its large cage and markhor. Stayed the night at gilgit and started off for Fairy Meadows the next day. Fiary meadows was longer trek for us because half the jeep ride was compromised due to land sliding and we had to walk almost double the usual trek. We covered it in 6 hours but were completely exhausted and slept. FM was amaaazing even though half of it was covered in snow and it snowed from intervals. Even though it was pretty cold but it wasn't as bad as Hunza cuz there weren't chilly winds. Looked around FM the next day (Beyal camp and NB camp were under heavy snow), and started journey back next morning. Took us 2 hrs to get back to jeep point but took very long for jeeps to arrive and had a horrible fight with them. Reached Besham that night and returned to pindi the next day. Overall it was great, would have wished for less cold and for Deosai and Khunjerab to have opened but North still never disappoints.
Thanks a lot to all the seniors for extremely helpful guidance.
Regards,
Muhammad Hamza Qadri
